4.25 and beyond

[Zojha]

I think we can do some of the things that weren't perfect better today.

Like what exactly and how?

From your previous post, I'd have wagered the complaint goes into the direction of duty finder and the "group but solo" playstyle it allows. "Allows", because all the ways and means to socialize and build a community people used back in the days are still fully intact. They have just become optional for most content (Aside maybe Savage) and people choose not to utilize them, but rather rely on the convenience tools because they are, well... more convenient.

As such, MMOs have become "single player games with online play" largely because that's what people predominantly choose if given the choice. And that means trying to change it back requires to cut some of the convenience back as well. The result is things taking longer again. And it's not just duty finder - if you need something crafted, you gotta find a crafter (which can take time) or you go the convenient but anonymous way over the MB/AH. Same thing goes for anything else that might require another player, you either invest the time to search/organize them manually or you let a tool do it for you. Plus, socializing needs downtime where you can actually chat with each other and downtime is downtime.

Gear is a different story, but that, too, has become largely throwaway stuff simply because it takes less time to get. Gear is used as incentive for content and once you have it, the incentive is gone. The sooner you have it, the sooner the incentive is gone. And once the incentive is gone, you need a new incentive, unless players play for the heck of it. So you need a new incentive sooner as well.

FFXIV is somewhat on the extreme side here, because it really doesn't ask for much of your time. But that comes at a cost.

I mean, I might get you entirely wrong here and that's not even related to your personal gripes. But the way I see it, there's simply a tradeoff between certain wishes and games can't really deliver both, they can only offer a different mix and different mixes suit different people.